The purest form--the ideal type--of Weber's legal-rational type of authority is bureaucracy. Legal-rational authority indicates that authority is invested in a set of rules and rule-bound institutions and that the creating and changing the rules are outside of the control of those who administer them; it does not mean, however, that the authority is democratic. Monarchs and even authoritarian leaders who recognize a set of laws external to their powers govern using legal-rational authority. The characteristics of bureaucracy include a fixed salary, posts based on technical skill rather than personal connections, a well-defined hierarchy, and continuous rules which bind the behavior of administrators and citizens or clients alike.

Reading assignment:
Weber, Economy and Society, Chapter 3, pp. 217-226; 271-301

1. Introduction
2. Hobbes: Authority, Human Rights and Social Order
3. Locke: Equality, Freedom, Property and the Right to Dissent
4. Montesquieu: The Division of Powers
5. Rousseau: Popular Sovereignty and General Will
6. Rousseau on State of Nature and Education
7. Mill: Utilitarianism and Liberty
8. Smith: The Invisible Hand
9. Marx's Theory of Alienation
10. Marx's Theory of Historical Materialism
11. Marx's Theory of Historical Materialism (cont.)
12. Marx's Theory of History
13. Marx's Theory of Class and Exploitation
14. Nietzsche on Power, Knowledge and Morality
15. Freud on Sexuality and Civilization
16. Weber on Protestantism and Capitalism
17. Conceptual Foundations of Weber's Theory of Domination
18. Weber on Traditional Authority
19. Weber on Charismatic Authority
20. Weber on Legal-Rational Authority
21. Weber's Theory of Class
22. Durkheim and Types of Social Solidarity
23. Durkheim's Theory of Anomie
24. Durkheim on Suicide
25. Durkheim and Social Facts

This course provides an overview of major works of social thought from the beginning of the modern era through the 1920s. Attention is paid to social and intellectual contexts, conceptual frameworks and methods, and contributions to contemporary social analysis. Writers include Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Adam Smith, Marx, Weber, and Durkheim.

Course Structure:
This Yale College course, taught on campus twice per week for 50 minutes, was recorded for Open Yale Courses in Fall 2009.